Abstract
Evidence for long-term memory (LTM)-based control of attention has been found during the execution of highly practiced multi-step tasks. However, does LTM directly control for attention or are working memory (WM) processes involved? In the present study, this question was investigated with a dual-task paradigm. Participants executed either a highly practiced visuospatial sensorimotor task (speed stacking) or a verbal task (high-speed poem reciting), while maintaining visuospatial or verbal information in WM. Results revealed unidirectional and domain-specific interference. Neither speed stacking nor high-speed poem reciting was influenced by WM retention. Stacking disrupted the retention of visuospatial locations, but did not modify memory performance of verbal material (letters). Reciting reduced the retention of verbal material substantially whereas it affected the memory performance of visuospatial locations to a smaller degree. We suggest that the selection of task-relevant information from LTM for the execution of overlearned multi-step tasks recruits domain-specific WM.
Highlights
Humans can efficiently perform highly complex tasks every day without much effort
We suggested that the control of visual attention and eye movements becomes less sensory-based and more long-term memory (LTM)-based during learning
Our data challenge the suggestion that highly trained skills can be performed without recruiting working memory (WM) (e.g., Fitts and Posner, 1967; Anderson, 1993; Beilock et al, 2002) including the idea that action-relevant parameters are directly specified via LTM information (Neumann, 1984, 1990; Logan, 1988, 1990)
Summary
Humans can efficiently perform highly complex tasks every day without much effort. Examples are driving a bicycle or a car, reading a newspaper, or singing along a favorite song. The ease with which these tasks are performed should be due to a substantial long-term memory (LTM) contribution (e.g., Neumann, 1984, 1990; Logan, 1988, 1990). Such highly LTM-controlled skills are often viewed as automatized. The instance theory of automatization (Logan, 1988, 1990) assumes that an automatized action is based on direct-access retrieval of the strongest associated LTM instance.
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